Rose-Breasted Grosbeak ...

I made up for yesterday's idleness by doing quite a bit today!

We started the morning off by going to a treasure/plant sale at a local Moravian church where I picked up a few new squirrel blip props!  I love my props! 

We then had lunch at home before heading out to "Kite Day in the Park" that was being held at Louise Moore State Park.  There wasn't much wind when we left home so we weren't sure how many kites would be flying.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the park and there were about half dozen in the air.  I took some pictures of some young boys chasing bubbles and I thought I would blip that.  More on that later. 

From Louise Moore Park we went up to Jacobsburg State Park to see what was happening there.  At the bird blind I saw a Eastern Towhee but he was not in a photograph-able position.  We put some peanuts out in order to entice him to a better spot but he didn't take the bait. 

Now on to my picture ...

As we were leaving for the parks R saw an unusual bird with a flash of white.  We only saw it briefly and weren't able to identify it.  Later on when we got home I was looking out the front window and saw a bird I had never seen before ..... this Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

To say I was a little excited was an understatement!  I love seeing new bird species.  Since I had no idea what he was I quickly pulled out my smartphone and opened up the app that Kimb told me about .... "Merlin Bird Id" put out by The Cornell Lab.  The first bird to pop up when I put in the information was a rose-breasted grosbeak ... positive ID! 

My first few shot of him were through the glass and weren't very good.  I looked up online what they eat and discovered that they like sunflower seeds and peanuts!  How lucky was I that I keep a stash of peanuts for my squirrels! We put some of both out in the feeder, I opened the window and the vigil began.

Luckily we didn't have to wait long as he was back in a heartbeat to snap up the sunflower seeds ... see extra.  I have also added an photo to Flickr showing him from the back.

So, as you see I did not blip the exuberant boys in the park ... I just had to post this beautiful grosbeak! It would be lovely if he was here for the summer but I believe he is just passing through. The range map shows this is his breeding/summer area so we will just have to wait and see.